Stations Online

From Saint Mary’s Basilica in Minneapolis, here are really beautiful Stations of the Cross. There has been much variety historically in the stations; these are the new scriptural stations given us by Pope John Paul II. Lucinda Naylor, artist-in-residence at The Basilica, and Steven Anderson, master printer, collaborated on these mono-prints.

Wow, it’s amazing how people can have such different reactions to art. Cardinal Ratzinger offered some very good reasons why abstract art is not properly Christian art in his book The Spirit of the Liturgy. Others may disagree with his assessment, but I find his reasoning resonates deep within me – something which is almost palpable when I look at abstract “art” such as this. That said, I was encouraged to read that the church has two traditional sets. Because of this, I’d be inclined to take the both/and approach over the either/or approach. There could potentially be some good here, no?

But on p. 134 he seems rather open and non-prescriptive when he talks about the responsibility and freedom of the artist. And on page 130 he’s not exactly enthusiastic about the church’s artistic “flight into historicism, the copying of the past” after the Enlightenment, when faith was pushed into an “intellectual and even social ghetto.”
Are there other passages in the book I’m overlooking? Where does he say that abstract art is not properly Christian? The Vatican owns loads of it and I haven’t heard that he’s getting rid of it.
awr

Father, forgive me. It’s been a while since I’ve read the book, and perhaps my phrasing it as not properly Christian was a bit bolder than his own words. What I seem to remember was that he related good art to incarnational theology (and signs which point us to Heavenly realities)… and that it opens us up and draws us more deeply into the truths of our faith. I thought he contrasted this with abstract art which does not seem very capable of doing that. I made the jump that, if the Christian faith is Incarnational and abstract art is rather unsuited to that… it would seem to be non-Christian. Does what I am saying even make sense? Nevertheless, if I have misread the book, I will certainly take another look. Thank you, Father.

There is inspired abstract art and there is uninspired abstract art. Lucinda Naylor’s work is indeed inspired and inspiring. If one takes the time to sit with the art it is clear that the artist meditated on the Scriptire passages her work illustrate. The art in turn has the ability to illuminate the illustrated passages. Although maybe not as accessible as a “realistic” representation the fruit of this kind of visio divina can be very moving and lifegiving.